National Environmental Public Health Internship Program (NEPHIP)

Students: Get hands-on experience and a stipend.
Health departments: Gain high-quality assistance at no cost.
NEPHIP is administered through a partnership between CDC and the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). Student applicants must be from academic programs accredited by the National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council.

Since 2015, NEPHIP has supported almost 200 internships for environmental health students hosted by health departments around the country. Previous NEPHIP interns worked across a range of environmental health programs. The top five areas were the following:

• Food safety and protection
• Onsite wastewater (septic systems)
• Public swimming pools
• Rabies prevention
• Private or onsite drinking water

Interns completed many different types of activities during their 10-week internship. The most common were the following:

• Performing inspections
• Educating the public
• Maintaining databases or electronic information systems
• Engaging in partnerships with the community or other stakeholders
• Responding to complaints

NEPHIP helps establish pipelines and increase workforce diversity by encouraging environmental health students to consider careers at local, state, or tribal environmental health departments after graduation. Program graduates have first-hand field experience and knowledge of frontline environmental health challenges. With 1 in 4 environmental health professionals in health departments planning to retire in the next 5 years, creating a path for the next generation is critical. In a survey of former NEPHIP interns, 4 out of 5 said they were more likely to pursue a career in environmental health after participating.